Paramilitary policemen carry tyres as they take part in a training session in Zhangye, Gansu Province, China, March 1, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

French firemen wearing chemical protective suits take part in a mock chemical attack exercise at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne, France, April 4, 2016 in preparation of security measures for the UEFA 2016 European Championship. (Photo by Robert Pratta/Reuters)

A volcanic eruption at Mount Etna’s Vorgaine crater in Sicily, Italy on December 3, 2015. (Photo by Marco Restivo/Barcroft Media)

A giant storm cloud can be seen in the sky above swimmers near Mollymook Beach, south of Sydney, March 5, 2014. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A truck carrying iron ore moves along a road at the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) Christmas Creek iron ore mine located south of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, November 17, 2015. (Photo by Jim Regan/Reuters)

A child looks at window cleaners work while dressed in sheep (C) and monkey costumes, denoting animal signs of the Chinese zodiac calendar, during an event marking the upcoming end of the year at a hotel in Tokyo, Japan, December 21, 2015. According to the zodiac calendar, 2015 is the year of the sheep and 2016 is the year of the monkey. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Entomologist Anna Platoni wears a hat made of tropical flowers made by florist Emma Reynolds with a Blue Morpho butterfly on her cheek to mark the opening of Butterflies in the Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley, south of London, on Janurary 15, 2016. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/PA Wire/RHS)

Earlier this year, Belgian film-maker and artist Vincent Bal stumbled upon an uncanny resemblance to an elephant in the shadow of his tea cup. This gave him the idea for Shadowology, a series of doodles that interact with the shadows of simple, everyday objects: a banknote, some ice cubes and a flower, for example, can turn into a church, a woman and a hippy. “I draw a few lines and I get my image. It’s really the shadows that inspire me”, Bal says. Here: “Stonedog”. (Photo by Vincent Bal/The Guardian)